Royal Death
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Queen Arthur's world crumbles at the loss of his husband which marks the beginning of a series of mysterious murders of the kings of the four kingdoms sending Jacks, Queens, Heirs, and a King in to hiding while the search for the murderer begins. Cardverse AU.
1. Chapter 1

Waking up to find your beloved dead was worse than you could imagine; Alfred had a long, white pole jammed through his chest piercing the kind, heroic heart with in.

Arthur gulped; he couldn't rule their kingdom alone as they had always ruled it together. and Alfred had been his hero and his love.

Alfred was everyone's hero, and everybody loved him; it was impossible to hate someone so pure, so nice.

Arthur's heart was broke in a million places, and he just knew that it wouldn't recover as how could he love again when his soulmate's life had been taken away so soon?

He knew what he had to do, but he hated the thought of talking to those people that were still pretty much strangers to him after all these years; Alfred had always handled the meetings as he had known the kings of the kingdoms since he was a baby.

Arthur called the other kingdoms in for a meeting; a threat in one kingdom was a threat to them all if it managed to spread, so the kingdoms were rather close.

He had always been out of the loop as Alfred had always insisted that the Hero was the one to speak with them which left Arthur as the silent Queen of Spades.

Arthur was queen as he had married the only heir to the kingdom since the other heir had been killed by an attack on the castle years earlier when the princes had been infants.

Queens were required to show up at the meetings while the Jacks stayed home to rule the kingdom for however long the Queen and King were gone, but for this meeting one queen was left back at the castle as Francis had left his wife back at their castle; most assumed that he had done that, so that when he inviteably slept around, she wouldn't catch him.

King Francis Of The Diamond Kingdom had really left his queen behind, because she was pregnant; they did not want news of her pregnancy to be spread around as she was not pregnant with her husband's child.

"You should hide out in my kingdom until the murderor is found, Queen Arthur Jones." King Francis Bonnefoy suggested to the Queen Of The Spades Kingdom; the other kingdoms protected the other royals when one of the others needed that protection.

Arthur hate to be called Queen Arthur Jones as his name was Queen Arthur Kirkland-Jones after he had married King Alfred Jones of The Spades Kingdom.

"I don't trust you anywhere near me." Arthur growled out, nice and low.

"You need to hide before the murderor comes back to kill you." Queen Kiku Of The Hearts Kingdom timidly informed Queen Arthur.

Arthur frowned, but he didn't verbally respond to the other male queen.

* * *

><p>That was how Arthur found himself being escorted in to the Diamond Castle by the King Of Diamonds, himself.<p>

Arthur wasn't all that surprised by the extravagance of the castle, because he had been here numerous times before; all of those times he had been escorted by his king, Alfred, the love of his life.

Arthur refused to cry anywhere near Francis as the King Of Diamonds probably didn't even know what real love was.

He watched Francis move through the castle with the ease and grace of someone that had lived here his whole life.

"Vash, how is she?" Francis asked his Jack worriedly.

Arthur was startled by the genuine concern that graced the King's face as he had asked that question.

"Lilli's fine." Vash only looked slightly nervous at using his queen's name so informally once he spotted Arthur.

"I'm glad." Francis smiled, and knelt by the bed to kiss his wife on the forehead; there was a specific way that he had to treat her when surrounded by people that did not know how their relationship really was.

Francis cherished Lilli as a friend rather than a wife; he was kind to her, and did not mind the fact that she loved someone else as she had loved that person when she had married Francis, and he had known about it.

King Francis slept around, because his wife loved someone else waiting for the day that he would find true love, the kind that Lilli had already found.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur was surprised as he realised that the Queen Of Diamonds was pregnant.

"You're about to have an heir?" Arthur asked like with his own kingdom the need to have a heir was especially strong when the king had no siblings.

Francis seemed startled by Arthur's question, and answered it with a simple, "Non."

"But your queen is pregnant, and unlike you she doesn't seem to sleep around." It came out harsher than Arthur meant it to as he had been horribly confused by Francis's answer.

"You mustn't tell anyone, but that is not my child that she is carrying." King Francis answered him.

"But how?" Arthur had never seen the sweet woman that Lilli was as the type to cheat on her husband.

"She loves someone else, and I have given them my blessing." Francis answered easily; it didn't hurt him that his queen loved another as it had never bothered him, in fact he was happy for her.

"Kings and Queens are supposed to love one another." Arthur declared; he had certainly loved Alfred, and Alfred had loved him.

"Royalty doesn't always work that way." Francis sighed; a part of him did wish that he married someone that he loved, but he had chosen Lilli out of all of the women that his mother had prepared for him for her sake; he had done so, so that she would be able to be with her love in the castle with out ignorant people keeping them a part.

Lilli had loved Vash for a long time despite the fact that they had grew up together like they were siblings when they were only step-siblings; their parents had married each other while Vash and Lilli were still young which led to most people assuming that they were indeed related as they had to be the only family that was this way.

Queen Arthur of The Spades Kingdom frowned at Francis's answer, and turned away to consider that; Alfred had always believed that Kings and Queens were supposed to love one another that was why he had married Arthur after discovering him on one of his many travels through his kingdom.

Arthur had not really believed that Alfred loved him at first, and he had doubted Alfred's reasoning on love between the royals after a while though Alfred had him convinced.

* * *

><p>While the kingdoms were preparing a search party for the murderer and a secret funeral for King Alfred, the murderer hadn't simply stopped there.<p>

He had managed to sneak in to the Clubs Kingdom's castle, and was preparing for another king's death.

His dark eyes that reeked of evil caught sight of the heirs of the Kingdom of Clubs, Natalya and Katyusha. Katyusha had backed away from power years before in fear that she couldn't handle the king's duties and had let Ivan become king; she had even helped pick him out a strong wife.

He moved towards the two; why settle for just the king when you could destroy the potential future kings as well?

Katyusha had moved in front of her younger sister, and cried out in pain as her body became a bloody, limp mess.

Before she died, she had called out one, last thing, "Run!"

Natalya ran towards her brother, but a swift knife pierced her flesh anyway; her arm fell to her side, limp and useless.

She changed direction towards the door, and prayed that Elizabeta would protect Ivan; Natalya had never been a slow runner, so she managed to leave the castle grounds quickly and easily.

The murderer ignored her in favor of the king.

King Ivan was startled by the sight of the mysterious person that he could only see the eyes of; they appeared red in the dead of night, but that may have just been caused by the emotions with in them.

Ivan moved to defend himself, but he was not fast enough as the knife dug in to his flesh hard and far enough to hit something vital and kill him.

Elizabeta moved to be a powerful queen and defend her kingdom even though she wasn't considered queen since her husband had died.

She managed to injure the man that then vanished with a chilling remark, "No royal is left to rule this kingdom."

That was when she broke down; Natalya and Katyusha were dead too?

Elizabeta would be killed for having not protected the kingdom as she was called to do, so she left hoping that the cabin that she had once called home was still inhabited by the man that she had once loved.


	3. Chapter 3

Natalya soon found herself lost in the woods, and her body failed her from the blood loss, disappearance of adrenaline, and lack of energy with in her body.

She was picked up by a blond haired man that brought her to a small, homely, and pink cabin that rested in the middle of the woods.

Another man was outside, and sweeping off the leaves from the path.

"Toris, I think I found one of the princesses of the Club Kingdom." Feliks, the blond man that had rescued Natalya, called out towards the brown haired man that had been sweeping the path off.

Toris rushed in to work as he caught sight of Natalya; she was as pale as death with the red of blood dripping down her arm to her side, and continuing to flow flow down even further.

The brunette had once been a famous doctor in the Kingdom Of The Clubs until he had ran away with Feliks when the blond had almost been killed by the guards of the palace that had decided that Feliks had been in the way when they were buying food from the marketplace that had probably been used for the King's food or just as snacks for the guard.

Toris had decided that it would be safer if he took his blond lover away from the kingdom, so they moved in to the woods that happened to be just outside of the kingdom; they built a cabin there, or Toris built it while Feliks looked on.

Either way, the Lithuanian man set to work on treating the last biological member of Clubs' royalty.

Natalya awoke many hours later to find herself laying in an unknown bed while her arm somehow seemed to hurt worse than before.

She could smell something cooking, and two male voices socialising somewhere with in the house that was more than likely the kitchen.

Natalya was startled by the sight of Toris entering the room with a tray of food in his hands that appeared to be for her.

"Oh, good. You're awake!" Feliks spoke as he had followed his brown haired lover in to the room.

"Who are you?" Natalya was still very confused at how she had gotten here, and who these men were.

"I'm Toris." Toris smiled at her, and set the tray on to her lap.

"I am Feliks." He grinned shyly yet somehow eccentrically at her.

"I am Princess Natalya." The woman on the bed murmured.

"We totally know that. See, I found you and told Tori who you are." Feliks added on as he had seemingly warmed up to her more than before.

Toris blushed at the feminine sounding nickname that Feliks had used for him in Natalya's presence.

"Tori?" Natalya asked curiously, and began to search for a woman.

"Feliks meant me." Toris mumbled in embarrassment; he didn't mind the nickname so much when they were alone, but it was painfully mortifying to be called by it in front of other people.

Natalya was surprised at that confession, and how girly Toris's nickname sounded.

She carefully picked up her silverware, and tried to eat; it proved to be difficult to manage with one arm.

The princess was frustrated that she couldn't feed herself at the moment, and Toris decided to take over that task by hand feeding her himself.

Natalya felt extremely embarrassed by the action, but she let him as she couldn't feed herself.

* * *

><p>Elizabeta found the cabin that she was looking for easily enough; it appeared abandoned like it always had.<p>

She snuck in through the back door like she use to have to; she saw two men in the kitchen.

One sat on the other's lap as they talked; thankfully the man that she had been looking for was the one that had the eerily familiar looking man on his lap.

"Gilbert." Eli called out as she entered the kitchen and sat down beside the two men.

"Lizzy, or should I now call you Queen Elizabeta?" Gilbert asked her with a smirk on his attractive yet pale face; a devil's tail twitched behind him leisurely.

"I am not a queen anymore. Someone killed my king, and the heirs to the throne." Elizabeta announced to her old lover.

"Ah. They got your kingdom too. I didn't think that he'd even let you live." Gilbert announced mysteriously as the Joker he was easily pulled any which way based off of how he felt at the time.

Elizabeta had been drawn in to the dangerousness and mystery of the Joker when she had first met him which had led to a romantic relationship at the time until she had been requested for and married Ivan; loyalty had been the only real bond that had connected her and Ivan other than the pride of being the queen that the citizens could look up to.

"Are you on their side then?" She wondered if Gilbert would even let her live.

"I don't pick sides, Lizzy. You know that. Whichever side I am on is the awesome side, and the right side." Gilbert smirked at her.

"So are you going to kill me then?" Elizabeta asked; her head was tilted up proudly to show that she had dignity even when faced with death.

"I could never do that. You know that I am loyal to my own, don't you?" Gilbert answered her.

Elizabeta smiled a tight lipped smile at that; she had stopped considering herself his long ago, and hadn't thought that the devilish Joker had still cared about her.


	4. Chapter 4

Elizabeta had been left alone with Gilbert's newest lover, Matthew, as the albino Joker had something important to do which probably dealt with the scumbags that had ruined her kingdom; she just knew that he was on their side, and that he would remain that way even after he had taken her in.

"So what's your name?" Elizabeta asked the quiet Canadian.

"Matthew Williams. Gilbert and the others helped me pick out a last name." His head ducked down; he appeared so much younger than Gilbert, but that didn't mean much as Gil always prefered to look younger than he actually was.

"Are the others the ones that destroyed my kingdom?" Elizabeta's voice dropped down several tones to a much eerier one as she was furious that someone could do this to the most powerful kingdom.

"Yes, but I can't give out their names." Mattie murmured.

"Fuck!" Elizabeta wanted to absolutely destroy them the way that they had killed Katyusha, Ivan, and Natalya.

Elizabeta watched the quiet man, and assumed that he felt like protecting the ones that had pretty much raised him.

Her eyes widened as she realised that he looked like the late king, Alfred.

"Are you by any chance kin of King Alfred's?" She asked.

"No. I never met him, and I don't know anything about my biological family. Sorry." Matthew answered her in his normal, quiet tone of voice.

"You look like him." She tried to think back to what she had heard about the Spades Kingdom from her younger years, but the only thing that she could recall was the fact that the castle had been broken in to when King Alfred was a baby; his twin brother had been killed back then.

* * *

><p>His ruby red eyes watched the figures that appeared to be mere shadows in the room.<p>

It was impossible for anyone to distuingish any physical characteristics of the group members that Gilbert had chosen to hang out with.

"How did everything go in the Kingdom Of Spades?" The wording sounded like what one would say to a friend or acquintance after they had traveled, but the tone of the voice, the person that had spoken it, and the setting of the conversation told a far eerier tale.

"It went well. The king died." This subordinate bowed his head as if embarrassed to say that he did not have the maliciousness to kill off the queen and the jack as he had obviously let them live.

Thankfully, their leader ignored that for now. "The Queen and one of the heirs of the Kingdom Of The Clubs managed to get away, and their Jack is being executed." A sinister kind of glee as the leader said the last bit about the Jack.

"Gilbert. If you find any of the missing royalty, kill them. We would hate for them to take back the throne." The cruel voice held a command that one would be stupid to ignore.

"Yes, sir." Sir was spoken in an insulting, sarcastic, and an almost teasing tone of voice, and Gilbert left with his red tail swingng behind him in it's usual way. 'What he doesn't know won't hurt him?' The Joker thought as he walked away.

* * *

><p>Roderich stepped up on to the platform decinated for criminals that had betrayed the kingdom.<p>

He was nervous, but he kept his composture as the crowded started chanting for his blood, for his death.

The guards forced him down on to the platform; his head was placed right underneath the guillotine blade which caused the crowd to cheer louder.

The blade fell down upon him with quick accurancy and the pain was only blinding for a second as that was how long his life lasted when the blade had cut his head clean off.

Roderich's head tumbled on the ground until the head guard picked it up, and announced that the traitor was killed for his actions against the King.

The crowd cheered even louder at the thought that justice had won yet again; the search for the new king of the Clubs Kingdom was put off until the bodies of the Queen and Princess Natalya were found.


	5. Chapter 5

The Jack Of The Hearts Kingdom watched as Queen Kiku placed his hand on his own stomach during the meeting, and King Ludwig was too busy double checking that everything was in order in case their kingdom was attacked by the mysterious murderer that had killed two kings already while collapsing those two kingdoms for the most part; Yao was leading the Spades Kingdom while his queen was away, and no one was leading the Kingdom Of The Clubs as they had recently decided to execute their Jack.

The news of Jack Roderich's death still struck fear in Feliciano's heart, so he had chosen to forget about it.

He instead focused on how painful it was to know that the Queen was pregnant with Ludwig's child, and Feliciano had never gotten pregnant.

Jack Feliciano would never be allowed to have Ludwig's child; cheating with your Jack was frowned upon more than cheating on a random civilian which made things far too difficult for The Kingdom Of The Hearts' Jack, Feliciano Vargas.

He watched Ludwig dismiss the meeting, and his concern over how Kiku was faring with his pregnancy.

Feliciano knew that Kiku's pregnancy was more important than any other Royal affair as Ludwig's brother had vanished years before, or if he had one as no one knew for sure whether the King had a sibling; Kiku and Ludwig's child would be their heir which meant that no matter what that the child had to be born and raised to one day be the King of The Hearts.

Ludwig moved quietly over to Feliciano's side; The Jack couldn't help it that his heart had given a hopeful tug with in his chest at the sight of Ludwig coming to his side and leaving Kiku's.

"You have to get Kiku out of here, and protect him before the murderer comes here. We are a weak and easy target as my only heir is still with in my queen's womb." Ludwig whispered in Feliciano's ear.

That hadn't been quite what the Italian had wanted to hear which was obvious by the way he sighed at that command.

"Yes, sir." Jack Feliciano resorted back to proper terms in order to address the King which caused said king to frown.

"I love you." The words were murmured as quietly as humanly possible that could still be heard.

"Te amo, my king." Feliciano's voice lowered in fear that someone would recognize that particular phrase.

Ludwig walked back towards his queen that he probably also loved as he had married him, and took care of him.

* * *

><p>It was later that night that Feliciano heard the clatter of fighting with in the castle walls, and he knew that it was Ludwig against the murderer.<p>

He ran over in a hurry to the Royal Chambers, and woke up the queen; he would not deny the king's last command towards him.

Feliciano wasn't much, but he was a loyal Jack.

The Jack barely managed to lift the queen in to his arms, and take off running; thankfully, adrenaline had kicked in.

He managed to carry the impregnated queen all the way in to the forest as he searched for an old, Spanish friend of his.

"Antonio, Antonio! Help!" It took what felt like too long for the Italian to encounter the Spaniard.

"Feliciano?" Antonio asked as he left the shack that he lived in; it was a small, wooden building that was falling apart with a single grave stone in what appeared to be the front yard.

"Kiku's pregnant!" The Jack barely managed to croak out in a surprisingly loud voice.

"I got home." The medicine man and doctor announced as he carried Kiku in to his old shack.

"Sorry that I haven't visited in a while, Fratello. Life just got busy back at the castle as the Queen's pregnant, and Ludwig still refuses to acknowledge the love he holds for me most of the time. Luddy won't live for much longer; we were attacked. A murderer is going to every kingdom, and killing the Kings of that kingdom." Feliciano admitted as he knelt in front of the grave stone that rested there.

"Feli, it's late. Come inside." Antonio's voice was sad as he looked at where The Jack knelt.

"Goodnight, Lovi. I was just catching my brother up on what has happened while I've been gone." Feliciano told his almost brother-in-law.

"I know. I miss him too." Antonio muttered as he thought back to the time that Feliciano's fiery brother had still been alive; he had made Antonio's life complete since the day that they met.


	6. Chapter 6

Arthur leaned over the toilet as he retched in to it; Francis knelt behind him like a nervous mother hen, though Francis' feelings seemed to extend past that which the Frenchman had made more than clear recently.

"When are we supposed to leave?" Arthur asked after he had washed his mouth off in the sink.

"As soon as your ready." Francis answered him; they had recently discovered that Arthur was pregnant after the morning sickness started, and Francis had begun to take care of Arthur.

"I'm ready." Arthur murmured; he found it unnerving that no one refered to him as a queen here.

Francis left Arthur's side briefly to gather Vash and Lilli.

They were fleeing in to hiding at a small cabin that Francis knew of that was nestled deep in the woods, and was well cared for by the Diamond Royalty despite the fact that the civilians had no idea that it existed which made it the perfect hiding spot for the four of them as well as the two babies that would more than likely be born there as Lilli was most the way through with her pregnancy.

Vash carried Lilli slowly and gently there as they did not want their hiding spot discovered or a bumpy carriage ride injuring Lilli or Arthur's babies that they carried inside their stomachs.

It was more of a concern for Lilli as she was farther along, but Francis still worried almost obsessively over Arthur.

* * *

><p>Matthew was currently kissing some unfamiliar boy before he left for the Diamond Kingdom which sent an unpleasant feeling coursing through Elizabeta's body as she couldn't trust the person that Matthew was clinging to while Gilbert was gone for the moment.<p>

"Bye, Matt." Mattie's voice was soft as he spoke that to the man with the almost exact name as the Canadian that looked like Alfred Of The Spades Kingdom.

"Goodbye Mattie." Matt's voice was rough and deep; he also appeared strong and masculine, the type of person that could easily win in a fight.

Eli watched the tougher looking Canadian walk away as he left to 'visit' the Diamond Kingdom.

"Does Gilbert know that you're seeing Matt?" Elizabeta called out after Matt had left.

"Not exactly, but I love them both." Sadness was present in the cute Canadian's eyes. and threatened to overflow from them in the form of tears.

"You'll have to choose one or the other." Elizabeta reminded Matthew; she hated the idea of him or Gilbert getting hurt by this facinating chain of events.

"I know." Matthew muttered.


	7. Chapter 7

When Matt arrived at the Diamond Kingdom, the castle appeared abandoned as if all of the royalty had vanished over night which meant that Matt was going to be in huge trouble for allowing this to happen even if he hadn't been the cause of this disappearance.

While Matt arrived here, someone else arrived back at the Spades Kingdom where the last remaining known royalty was at.

Those same haunting red eyes appeared hidden by the hood of a cloak and the darkness of the night.

The small figure of the person stepped forward and closer than ever to the unsuspecting Jack hidden behind the Spade Castle's walls.

The man entered the castle with out being stopped by anyone.

He had been encased by the protective castle walls years ago back when King Alfred had been a baby, and he hadn't been alone which was why the other heir had grown up unaware of his royal blood.

Back then, it hadn't been the time to ruin the other chances of royalty in the Spades Kingdom which was why the other heir had been allowed to live at that point in time.

He watched from the shadows as Jack Yao Wang worked on official looking papers.

"You don't have to do that anymore as your time is up." The red eyed man smirked.

"Who are you?" Yao's eyes darkened in distrust of the stranger.

"The new king of the kingdoms, and the merger of the past kingdoms. I'd tell you to bow to me, but you won't live to do so." His smirk widened as he pulled out a gold knife, and dragged it down the body of the Chinese Jack; blood seemed to eagerly follow the line, and drip past it; struggling was nonexistant at first out of pure surprise, but by the time that the surprise had worn off, the struggles were weak from blood loss.

The knife continued to merrily slice through soft, human flesh eventually finishing it's journey when the Jack had died and become unrecognizable.

He smiled with glee at the corpse before him, and bent down to scoop up the dead man's blood.

The red eyed man left shortly after with all of his victim's blood, and found his way back to the meeting spot that they had decided on ages ago.

* * *

><p>Matt stood there waiting for their red eyed leader with the others including the Joker that was only partially on their side.<p>

"Did you get them?" The leader asked Matt.

"They had fled before I arrived." Matt muttered awkwardly.

"Oh, do you remember the last time that someone failed to do what I asked?" The red eyed man asked him.

Matt gulped as words failed him at the moment; the last time that someone had failed to do what their leader asked the person, their leader's older brother, had been locked up, and had became Luciano's play toy, existing only to be tortured just for fun.

Luciano leaned closer to him, "So much for your little lover." The way that lover had been said implied that he didn't believe that love existed for anyone.

Matt hated the idea of himself being seperated from the man that he loved, but no one could deny Luciano of his orders or anything that he wanted.

Luciano led him away towards the chambers that he kept his victims; a blond man sat behind the locked jail door, blood covered, and obviously still in pain from whatever his younger brother had done to him.

"You're out, Flavio." Luciano said simply though Flavio didn't look convinced.

Luciano ended up dragging his brother out of the cell, and he shoved Matt in.

Matt closed his eyes when Luciano brought his prized, gold knife down repetitively on Matt's body scaring it; the leader was careful not to kill him while he inflicted as much pain as possible on the tough Canadian before he left to close up the meeting, and possibly get his older brother medical treatment.


End file.
